Florida's 911 system failed Denise Amber Lee on January 17, 2008 – and the recording of her final desperate call proves it.
Five people called 911 that afternoon while she screamed from the backseat of a killer's car, named cross streets, and begged to see her children.
And Ron DeSantis just signed the death warrant for the killer who made one woman beg for her life.
DeSantis Signs the Warrant – King Dies March 17
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the death warrant for Michael L. King last Friday, setting his execution for March 17 at Florida State Prison.
King – an unemployed plumber, 54 years old, who spent seventeen years grinding through appeals – is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m.
Denise Amber Lee was 21.
She had a husband who worked three jobs so she could stay home with their sons – ages two years and six months old.
King had been unemployed for months and was facing foreclosure when he circled her street four or five times in his green Camaro, watching.
Then he pulled into her driveway.
What She Did From That Backseat
While King drove to his cousin’s house to borrow a flashlight, shovel, and gas can – she got his phone.
From the backseat, with her wrists duct-taped, she called 911 and gave them everything she had.
The recording captures her saying “please” seventeen times, crying out to be let go so she could see her kids again.
King’s own cousin heard her scream “call the cops” from the car – watched King shove her back down when she fought him – and then called 911 with a description.
A woman at a traffic light on Highway 41 heard “horrific, terrified” screaming, watched a hand slam against the passenger window, and stayed on the phone with dispatchers for several minutes naming cross streets and the vehicle.
https://twitter.com/flcourts/status/2022370159965401471?s=20
Patrol cars were within a mile.
Nobody came.
Why Nobody Came – And How Her Family Fixed It
The Charlotte County dispatcher who took Jane Kowalski’s call never patched it through to the North Port police running the search just blocks away.
At the time, 911 centers in Florida each set their own training standards – some dispatchers trained for months, others were routing emergency calls within days of being hired.
Denise Lee’s father, Sgt. Rick Goff of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, made it his mission to make sure that never happened to another family.
He and Denise’s husband Nathan testified in Tallahassee, and in 2010 Florida passed the Denise Amber Lee Act – requiring a minimum of 208 hours of certified training for every 911 dispatcher in the state.
Nathan Lee founded the Denise Amber Lee Foundation six months after burying his wife, and he has been on the road ever since, telling her story to 911 centers across the country.
Last month he was in Bedford, Virginia.
Her sons, Noah and Adam – who were left alone in their crib that afternoon – appeared on ABC’s 20/20 last October for the first time as teenagers.
“We’re a part of her,” they said, “and people can see how important she was.”
DeSantis Is Delivering Justice Nobody Else Would
King’s execution will be Florida’s fourth of 2026 – and DeSantis is not slowing down.
Florida executed 19 people in 2025 – four times more than any other state in the country, nearly doubling the previous state record.
DeSantis has said it plainly: “There are some crimes that are just so horrific, the only appropriate punishment is the death penalty. These are the worst of the worst.”
And he is right about the math of injustice.
These crimes happened in the eighties, the nineties, the 2000s.
Families have been waiting decades.
Michael King was sentenced to death in 2009.
His appeals ground through federal and state courts for seventeen years – Florida Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit – and every one of them failed.
DeSantis looked at families who had been told “the system is working” for decades and said that is not good enough.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” he told reporters. “I felt I owed it to them.”
On March 17, Denise Lee’s family will finally be able to say the same.
Sources:
- C.A. Bridges, “Sarasota Killer to Be 4th Florida Execution of 2026. Who Is Michael King?” USA Today Network Florida, Feb. 16, 2026.
- Sierra Rains, “Execution Date Set for Man Who Abducted, Murdered North Port Mother in Tortuous Ordeal,” WFLA, Feb. 13, 2026.
- Orlando Sentinel Staff, “DeSantis Signs Death Warrant for Plumber Convicted in 2008 Sarasota County Murder,” Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 13, 2026.
- Fox 13 Staff, “Gov. DeSantis Signs Death Warrant for Michael King in 2008 Murder of Denise Amber Lee,” Fox 13 Tampa Bay, Feb. 15, 2026.
- Denise Amber Lee Foundation, “About the Foundation,” deniseamberlee.org, accessed Feb. 2026.
- Associated Press, “Florida Sets Up Third Execution in 2026 as State Leads U.S. Death Penalty Surge,” KSAT, Jan. 30, 2026.
- WUSF Staff, “Gov. Ron DeSantis Says Executions Are About Justice Amid Modern-Era Record,” WUSF, Nov. 4, 2025.
